Innovation in Information Security

Windows Vista SP 1 Slips to 2008

After initially reporting that Service Pack 1 for Vista was due before the end of 2007, Microsoft now say that the Service Pack will not be due out until the first quarter of 2008. Actually, what they say is that they are 'targeting' the first quarter of 2008 for the release, so the actual release date has yet to be made public.

For those who can't wait until 2008, or who weren't part of the closed testing program, there is always the educated guesswork being carried out over at vistasp1.net. With no confirmation that these hotfixes and updates will be incorporated into SP 1, it is noteworthy that Microsoft are annoyed with the information being put forward about potential SP 1 content. Microsoft are also expecting to release the Service Pack for public testing later this year, so there are some opportunities for the general public to get ahold of the Service Pack prior to release.

Despite it looking like a short period of time between the release of Windows Vista and the first Service Pack, it is actually longer than the amount of time that it took for Windows 2000 and XP to have their first Service Pack releases.

Download size and hard drive space requirements have also been hinted at, with around 50MB required for the initial download via WSUS, with up to 7 GB of hard drive space required for the SP 1 install (it seems that the standalone image is going to be around 1 GB). Unless Microsoft have invented a new, ultra-efficient compression algorithm for the download option, it is probably going to be most efficient for most users to obtain their Service Pack updates on optical media.

Separating public testing from the public release could lead to interesting Information Security aspects, with any new security fixes bound to be reverse engineered and probed prior to the public Service Pack release.